A story of Great Archaeological Discovery

By Dr. Zahi Hawass

Every archaeological discovery has strange and exciting secrets and stories. Here is a story of an important archaeological discovery in 2009.

The Czech mission operating in Abu Sir uncovered a complete cemetery that was not touched at all about 2500 years ago.

The cemetery dates back to the Late Period of ancient Egypt, about 500 years ago. It was for a person named Ayouf - Aa and was working as head of the royal palace.

Miroslav Verner, Czech Egyptologist called me to tell me about this discovery. I went to Abusir and I found that the cemetery was carved into the ground about 20 meters deep and contained huge granite coffins.

After inspection, I learned that this tomb had not been affected since the days of the Pharaohs. I told Farouk Hosni, the Minister of Culture at the time about that great discovery.

Hosni decided to hold a press conference during the unveiling of this cemetery because it was a completely unearthed archaeological discovery. It would have great global charm.

After a conversation with the minister, I remembered a story that happened with the Egyptian archaeologist Zakaria Ghoneim who discovered a pyramid and called it the imperfect pyramid. It belonged to King Sukhum – Khut, the last king of the Third Dynasty of Egypt. It dates back to the beginning of the age of the pyramids.

It was the second pyramid after Djoser`s and Ghoneim called it the imperfect pyramid because it was not completed yet.

Inside this pyramid, Ghoneim found a granite sarcophagus locked since the Pharaonic era, and it dates back to five thousand years.

President Gamal Abdel Nasser came in 1954 to attend the opening of this sarcophagus. Before that time, he attended the discovery of the sun boats by Kamal al-Malakh.